Armed groups vie for control amid Gaza chaos
Armed groups are seeking to take control of security and resources in Gaza as the Hamas government struggles to provide services during the war, according to sources inside the territory.
Palestinians in Gaza told i that in recent weeks masked men armed with guns and sticks had been patrolling the southern city of Rafah, claiming to be providing security.
A spokesman for one such group told the French news agency AFP that they are providing security and preventing price gouging by traders, as well as organising markets and transport, but declined to say on whose orders. “We work for the people,” the spokesman said.
A Palestinian living in southern Gaza, who asked to remain anonymous, said Hamas had been greatly diminished by the war, allowing an increase in crimes ranging from theft to murder.
“I don’t think Hamas is in control and Gaza is suffering from a lack of security,” they said. “Otherwise, why do we see stealing, people killing other people, and clashes when it comes to receiving aid?”
Some of the new groups are concerned with maintaining public order, while others operate like criminal gangs, they added. The surge in criminality is being driven by a breakdown of security and desperate conditions, according to senior officials at UNRWA, the United Nations agency primarily responsible for emergency relief inside the Strip.
“The situation has morphed over time into criminal elements trying to get to the aid before it reaches our distribution points,” its deputy director, Scott Anderson, told the Financial Times, calling one hazardous stretch of road as “Mad Max territory”.
Israel has attempted to partner with local families on aid distribution to bypass both Hamas and UNRWA.
Its government has also floated a proposal for post-war Gaza to be governed by influential local “clans” with no affiliation to Hamas or Fatah. A statement from the National Assembly of Palestinian Tribes last week acknowledged a role in “protection committees” providing services in Rafah, claiming that Israel has killed Hamas policemen who previously fulfilled this function.
Yoni Ben Menachem, an Israeli security analyst, said that Israel regarded the new security patrols in Gaza as “plainclothes Hamas” operations that had the group’s backing.